Ramie Makhlouf

Is Te'o's Publicist Real?

by Ramie Makhlouf,posted Jan 24 2013 8:34AM

I have to admit, when I heard that Manti Te'o and Katie Couric shared the same publicist I didn't expect anything but a fluff interview (that will air Thursday afternoon) that would only try to reclaim his image, and convince us that he was just the victim of a hoax. But let's just assume that Te'o is now finally telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (and I don't think he is) when he told Couric that he did lie for a brief time after finding out Lennay Kekua wasn't real, only because he was embarrassed. If so, that is the worst possibility for Te'o's NFL's draft prospects. What we've been told about how this whole scandal will affect Te'o's draft stock is that teams may be scared off by the possibility that A.) Te'o is crazy enough to lie about a girlfriend with leukemia or B.) He was gullible enough to fall for a fake girlfriend scam for three years. Now he has essentially told everyone that he's guilty of both, which creates another question altogether in my mind; Does Te'o have a bad publicist or is he and/or this story are just too crazy for anyone to put a good face on it?